In the News

TIAA’s experiment in gamification

As a concept, “gamification,” the buzzword for the process of applying game-design elements and principles to non-game contexts, sets itself apart from traditional participant communication. The latter underlines wealth accumulation and treats retirement savings as another monthly expense to be deferred from one’s paycheck. “Retirement providers are trying to communicate retirement readiness in a more intuitive way,” said Andrew Way, a senior analyst at consultant Corporate Insight. “The traditional way, talking about the nest egg, was quite honestly terrible…Gamification definitely has a lot of potential.”